The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1887-04-12
A WORD FOR THE BOYS.

concerning eminent men who fought
against heavy odds in their early
youth and won their way to honorable
positions and fame. These examples
are constantly being held up to our
young people who are seeking a
higher education, and they are told to
do likewise. 1t is quite true that
man who has real "stuf" In him and
a woman OF energy and pluck will
succeed, but the success is often a
costly thing if they are unprovided
with money or kind friends. This
incessant battling for a chance to be
somebody wears on the human
machine, and history does not record
the names of the hundreds of worthy
and ambitious youths who found flesh
and strength failing just when
success seemed near.
The theory that contest and strug
gle are necessary to development and
character building is true to certain
extent; but there is another side to
the question. In the days when
Abraham Lincoln split rails, and
other statesmen were hewers of wood
and drawers of water, social and
business life was less exacting; even
the studies pursued in universities
were easier and the demands upon
students limited. In those days the
boy who rang the bell and swept
the school house wa just as much re-
spected as the son Of the richest man
in town; so it should be to-day, but
the janitors perform those duties now,
and the students who resort to clerical
work to exc out his income works at
a tremendous disadvantage when he
endeavors to keep up with his more
fortunate classmates. If he is blessed
with superb constitution he may
endure the strain for several years,
only to break down in his prime. The
more ambitious he is, the smaller his
chances of living out his full term OF
years.
Brain workers require excellent
food and an abundance of fresh air,
neither of which is possible to the
man who must board himself and earn
money by resorting to all honest
means, With our increased and in
ereasing population, with telegraphic
speed aad tsle ri speech we have
passed beyond the stage. when time
M mot too Taluablt tpsaelmit of send
ing boy fifteen miles on horseback
to borrow newspaper. Are we
eef+e trse;-.ir wtren- we say TO our
boys of this generation, WHO are
stimulated beyond their strength by
the pressure put upon them in this
electric age, "Work your way
through college plenty Of good men
have done so ?" Plenty of good men
have died trying to apply this advice.
The majority of college professors tell
us that it requires mans entire vital
energy to keep we'll up in his classes
and take the necessary amount of
physical exercise. Hundreds of men
know that they were overworked In
bOyhood, and now. suffer from it in
middle life; while some frankly con-
fess "that great deal of nonsense is
written about making boys support
themselves while students, since it is
about all the average boy can do to
grow and study" Some boys have
too much help and are recklessly ex-
travagant, while others have too little.
A bright boy who is willing to work,
and work hard, to obtain an educa-
ton should not be compelled to feel
the drag of life so young that at forty
he is misanthropic, dyspeptic and
warped. The world would be richer
if he were an alI-around, well-deve-
Hoped man.
In @ country like ours it is a
thousand pities that one young man
who desires a liberal education should
he denied it. Work is wholesome,
;s danoerans and there Il